No abstract

Location-specific forms of agroforestry management can reduce problems in the forest–water–people nexus, by balancing upstream and downstream interests, but social and ecological finetuning is needed. New ways of achieving shared understanding of the underlying ecological and social-ecological relations is needed to adapt and contextualize generic solutions. Addressing these challenges between thirteen cases of tropical agroforestry scenario development across three continents requires exploration of generic aspects of issues, knowledge and participative approaches. Participative projects with local stakeholders increasingly use ‘serious gaming’. Although helpful, serious games so far (1) appear to be ad hoc, case dependent, with poorly defined extrapolation domains, (2) require heavy research investment, (3) have untested cultural limitations and (4) lack clarity on where and how they can be used in policy making. We classify the main forest–water–people nexus issues and the types of land-use solutions that shape local discourses and that are to be brought to life in the games. Four ‘prototype’ games will be further used to test hypotheses about the four problems identified constraining game use. The resulting generic forest–water–people games will be the outcome of the project “Scenario evaluation for sustainable agroforestry management through forest-water-people games” (SESAM), for which this article provides a preview.

No abstract

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly used to support both biodiversity conservation and fisheries management. However, MPA performance is likely to be compromised if people who depend on fishing are excluded from MPA design decision making. Participatory MPA design helps to address this problem by engaging local stakeholders in all critical decisions, including the total coverage, placement, and local size of no-take marine reserves. Here, we report the findings from a participatory MPA design project on Selayar Island, Indonesia, in which a community initiated collaborations with scientists to access modern quantitative tools for community-led MPA scenario testing. The outcomes highlight a local disagreement between ecologically and socially desirable MPA designs. Focused on social considerations, the initial community-supported MPA design consisted of four small reserves (0.5-1 km wide) in predominately southern community waters, where they were intended to restrict external fishers. Ecologically optimal MPA designs, in contrast, consisted of one or two large reserves (4-6 km wide) in northern community waters, where they were expected to restrict primarily local fishers but better support the rebuilding of fish populations and fisheries. However, ecologically optimal MPA designs were socially infeasible. Using quantitative MPA performance assessments, the community negotiated an alternative MPA design consisting of two 1.5-2 km wide reserves at socially and ecologically favorable locations. Compared to the initial proposal, this revised MPA design was estimated (1) to protect three to four times more individuals of key fishery species within reserve boundaries and (2) to double local fishery catches. We conclude that even simple MPA design tools, which quantify and visualize local conservation and fishery outcomes under alternative MPA scenarios, add value to participatory decision making and likely MPA performance.